Android Game Review: Musaic Box

Music has always held a special place in my life. I did choir, play the tuba, and am majoring in music in college. Unfortunately, music doesn't usually make a compelling game, so when I was presented with Musaic Box, I was understandably skeptical. In short, HeroCraft proved me very, very wrong.

Musaic Box is built in the point-and-click genre of games, where you're searching for clues by tapping on seemingly random objects on screen. Musaic Box does a pretty good job of guiding you towards the appropriate places to touch with a fairly noticeable sparkle, so don't worry about getting stumped.

You're looking for old music manuscripts that are littered throughout the room. When you've assembled all four pieces of a piece of music, you're then tasked with reproducing the melody and harmony as they're played to you.

This is all done in a very fresh, puzzle-style interface. The melody (and accompanying parts) are played for you at the beginning, then you're presented a series of differently-shaped rocks with runes carved in them. The runes are different colors (like red is always the melody), and you can tap on any rock segment to hear that piece of music be played.

Once you've worked out where all the pieces go (and are correct), the game automatically rewards you for your success by playing the piece of music through once more and adding it to your record book. From there, you keep doing more of the same, until you've found all the music in a particular room.

The scroll in the top-right corner of the screen lets you know how many pieces are left to find before you can advance, so it's easy to track your progress as you go.

One of the coolest features to me (aside from the rough translations in some spots) is that Musaic Box uses real historical references for much of the music you come across. Parts of the environment that don't hold clues (but you can still interact with) often reveal little tidbits about a composer or an instrument, and while it doesn't further the game, it's educational, and it's music, so I like it.

I would probably drop the cursive font if I could go in and change anything, but if that's the biggest gripe I can come up with, I think we're doing just fine.

Musaic Box is $1.49 in the Android Market. We've got download links after the break.